In July 1925, Father Eustáquio, Father Gil, and Father Mathias arrived in Água Suja/MG, today the city of Romaria, in the Triângulo Mineiro region. There, they began the work of what would later officially become the province of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Brazil.

In his testimony to the Tribunal for the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Father Eustáquio, Father Gil recounts that the place had been without a parish priest for two years:

“Água-Suja was a parish in the diocese of Uberaba, which had a sanctuary called Our Lady of the Abbey. Both the parish and the sanctuary were served by the local parish priest. When we arrived, the place had been without a resident priest for two years and was being served by a Sunday Mass celebrated by the neighboring priest from Estrela do Sul.”says Father Gil.

The city's situation was far from good. There were many moral and religious ills; the priests then arrived with the desire to change that reality. Father Eustáquio taught catechism to children and showed a predilection for the poor and the sick.

“Father Eustáquio began attending to a boy who was covered in sores; he himself, as he told me, cleaned those wounds, taking the child and administering remedies to him; the fact is that the boy came to be cured; his father, who was one of those henchmen who killed for the hire of contractors who killed rivals, came to thank Father Eustáquio for curing his son and to offer him his services free of charge against any adversary Father Eustáquio might have.”Father Gil recounts.

Father Eustáquio was always the first to arrive at the church to hear confessions and never left a sick person without a visit.

“"From the point of view of religious observance, I can say that Father Eustáquio was exemplary, he was constantly faithful. Among the religious who surrounded me, I can point to Father Eustáquio as one of the most observant, and certainly one of the most esteemed of his confreres."” Father Gil spoke to the Court in 1962.